as a complete noob i messed up my mobo trying to remove the heatsink (you know ..the usual "hand slipped ..stabbed mobo" way

here's a photo :


help ?

Solder it back on?
Does the xbox work without it? It may not be 'essential'.

Slipped and you took out 5 SMD components? Damn, that's bad luck . Just make sure that none of the solder points where the components were are bridged, cross your fingers, and fire it up. If your lucky, it will work without problems, because many of those components run in parallel. More likely, it will still work, but some things may not (i.e. memory card ports, usb, ethernet, etc.) and if it's really bad, it will give you 3RLOD. You may want to PM RDC or put this thread in the hardware forums where he can see it. He's the only one I know of that can tell you what different specific parts on the mobo are responsible for doing what.

DO NOT TURN THE CONSOLE ON.

you could do major damage to it if you turn it on.

you can either buy a broken motherboard and take the capacitors and resistors off of that or i can repair it for you, pm me.